Russian Su-30 Crashed in Kaliningrad – A Russian Aerospace Force’s Sukhoi S-30 (NATO reporting name: Flanker-C/G/H) crashed on Saturday in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. According to reports, there was an “explosion” and both crew members were reportedly killed.
The social messaging Telegram channel 112 first reported that as the twin-engine, two-seat fighter jet was descending, when an explosion sounded in the air. The Su-30 then crashed.
“On August 12, while performing a training flight in the Kaliningrad region, a Su-30 aircraft crashed in a deserted area. The flight was carried out without ammunition. The crew died,” the Russian Western Military District said in a statement.
Video of the aircraft’s final moments has been widely shared on social media.
This is the most recent accident involving a Russian aircraft, and it appears unrelated to the fighting in Ukraine. Last month, a Su-25 fighter jet (NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) crashed in the Yeyskiy Liman Bay near the town of Yeysk in the Russian south, and the pilot was killed in the crash. Local authorities said that the warplane had been conducting a training flight.
The Yeyskiy Liman Bay in on the north-east of the Azov Sea separates Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories.
Past Accidents Involving the Su-30
The multirole fourth-plus-plus-generation Su-30 fighter jet, which was developed from the Su-27 Flanker, was designed for use in all-weather conditions, and for air-to-air and air-to-surface missions. It has generally been seen as a reliable aircraft, but there have been some notable crashes of the Soviet-designed fighter since it entered service in 1989. At the Paris Air Show in June 1999, a modernized Russian Su-30MK crashed during a flight demonstration, but both of the pilots ejected safely and no one on the ground was hurt.
Another Russian Su-30SM crashed off the coast of Syria shortly after takeoff in May 2018 killing both pilots.
In January 2021, when a Russian Su-30 fighter jet crashed near the village of Dornikovo in the Tver region northwest of Moscow while on a routine training mission with two pilots on board. According to reports both aviators ejected and were recovered alive.
On October 23 of last year, a Russian Su-30SM crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk during a test flight. Pilots Maxim Konyushin and Viktor Kryukov were killed, but there were no casualties on the ground. Investigators suspect that the aircraft’s oxygen system had been refilled with nitrogen, which caused both pilots to become unconscious and lose control of the aircraft in flight.
An Export Aircraft
The Su-30 has been widely exported, and that included the Indian-variant Su-30MKI, built under license by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). It too has seen seven crashes since it was introduced in 2000 – that has been a major concern for the Indian Air Force.
Image: Creative Commons.
However, another special variant of the aircraft—the Sukhoi Su-30MKK—has been employed with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) with reasonable success. In August 2020, one of the Chinese Su-30 completed a record-breaking ten-hour armed patrol mission in the South China Sea, which set a new benchmark in long-range strike missions for the PLAAF.
Other nations, including Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Malaysia, Uganda, Venezuela, and Vietnam now operate the Su-30. There haven’t been any crashes involving the Su-30 in service with those nations.
This is a developing story.
⚡️The moment a Russian Su-30 crashed in the Kaliningrad region pic.twitter.com/liGnIs5vvN
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) August 12, 2023
Author Experience and Expertise:
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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